Our Dream Backyard – Part One

If the pandemic taught us anything it was that outdoor space/green space matters.  Home offices took on enormous importance but also the ability to get outside, whether to eat, play, read a book or join in an endless series of Zoom meetings.

So in mid July 2021 we took the plunge to completely transform our backyard.  For years we lived with a brick patio that served as one semi-adequate space for eating/grilling/having drinks/playing with the dog/etc.  The rest of the yard consisted of raised garden beds, a huge Willow Oak, three large but not very healthy holly trees, a shed, and a swath of grass which quickly devolved into patchy weeds because of the heavy shade.  An ugly generic deck connected the house to the patio.

The falling apart deck and rotting railroad ties on the raised beds were the initial impetus but when we removed the diseased holly trees an entire new space opened up!  Time to start dreaming – a place to sit/read/lounge, a pergola, a fire pit, an eating area, a covered porch instead of a deck, a grill with natural gas (that took some convincing for my Weber charcoal loving husband), and NO grass.

I’m a big believer in hiring experts so I quickly made a call to fellow Del Ray resident and architect Lisa Quant for my back porch and then to Joan Honeyman, the landscape architect who designed our original space some 30 years ago.  They both asked lots of great questions and  provided us with at least three options.  We made our choices pretty easily and then we got to work.

Stay tuned for Part Two  – the great upheaval!

Virginia